Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

TAKESHI

Ten Minutes Earlier

“No! No! No!” Memphis roared. “I checked all the intel myself. This can’t be right.”

Tank shook his head. “They tricked us. Somehow, someway, they got intel on what we’re doing.”

The men I worked with had never looked more distraught. We had tried hard to be ahead of the Gilded Ones. We needed to take them down. It was a matter of life and death.

It was also a personal vendetta.

Some people who had come into our lives had been in a direct connection with these people. Our loved ones had suffered at their hands and been threatened.

All except Archie.

While I was thankful that my husband had never had to come across these guys, I also understood that things could change at any second.

Memphis slammed his hand on the desk. “Are you 100% sure?”

Tank pulled out his phone, then motioned it towards the large screen. What popped up was a gruesome sight. The dead body of the man that we had been calling Ajax was splayed across the room. He was in far worse shape than any of the other Gilded Ones we've come across.

“Good grief,” Cohen mumbled. “You hired someone to do this?”

Our boss scrubbed the back of his neck. “I have a feeling this Ajax fellow aggravated my associate. He typically has a good habit of not making a mess. This is an abnormal case, to be sure.”

Ronan scoffed. “Abnormal? The man is basically minced meat. I don't know how in the world you intend to cover this up.”

“I don't intend to cover it up,” Tank said. “I have zero affiliation to it. There is no proof that I'm involved in any way. Honestly, once the police figure out who it is, the FBI will come in, mark Ajax's off some most wanted list and everyone will be happy.”

I rolled my eyes at the way Tank said it so succinctly. It wasn't going to be that easy.

There would be questioning and confusion. There would maybe even be an investigation. The only way all that could be avoided would be if Stabler stepped in to say something.

But since Stabler wasn't having the easiest time handling things, we couldn't depend on him for that. Just like most government agencies, his could not be trusted. There were people too far up the food chain who held too much power. They would go against us in a heartbeat if it meant jeopardizing their own safety and their own agreements.

I tapped my finger on the table to get everyone's attention. Once I had it, I motioned to Ronan and mimicked picking up a phone. He scowled until I drew a D in the air. His eyes bulged out as he breathed a single word, “Damari."

I nodded quickly, then pulled out my own phone. Ronan shook his head. “I’ll call Archie too. He can go meet Damari at the shop.”

The thought made me scowl. There was no way Archie would get to the coffee shop in time if he was at home. At the same time, there was no guarantee that either of them would be safe if we didn't get people in place.

Tank had already instructed us not to be alone anymore. We had to work in pairs or as large a group as possible without drawing too much attention to ourselves. We had basically been doing that already, but he wanted to make sure we were aware of why it was important now.

Because the person we thought we were getting close to catching, the one behind all this human trafficking, wasn't the actual person we were after.

Cohen raised his hand. “Does this mean that Ajax isn't the human trafficker and Mordecai is? If that's the case, then what did this Ajax person do?”

Memphis spoke up. “It would mean that we had the two of them mixed up. Ajax is the gun runner, and Mordecai is the body snatcher. And if that's the case, then we put together a plan that's not going to work at all.”

“Why not?” Tank demanded.

“Because this Mordecai is a fucking ghost. I mean, I have some shots of him from the side and back. And that face shot I have is one that's like fifteen years old. You know people can get work done and change their appearance. Hell, he could have been in the disguise in the photos I found. We have no clue what we're working with. We're going in blind.”

“No we're not,” Ronan said. “We know that Ajax person is now dead. That brings us down to Mordecai. He's the final piece of the puzzle.”

The room went quiet. Somehow that didn't seem right. I did the math in my head and realized he was wrong. I held up one finger.

Ronan frowned but turned to Memphis who pulled up the screen of all the Gilded Ones members. “Takeshi is right. We still have one more after Mordecai. But we figured they would be the easier ones to find. Tank’s guy was supposed to go after Mordecai first, and then we would take care of Ajax. Now it’s all mixed up.”

Tank stood and leaned forward on the table; his fingers spread wide — a clear indication that he's aggravated. “No matter what happens, we will take care of this. This is not the end of the road for us. We're going to figure it out.”

Ronan muttered as he lifted his phone to his ear. “I called Damari first. He's not answering. I'm calling Archie now.”

It only took a second for my husband to accept the call. What happened next was something I would lose sleep over for the rest of my life.

On our end, I could hear Ronan demanding that they get somewhere safe and stick together. But then, right as Ronan put it on speakerphone at Tank's behest, we heard what came next.

The screeching tires and the shouting.

The panic that ensued.

Tank’s phone blew up with the front desk calling him to say that there was an attack on the building.

Except it wasn't an attack on the building itself. It was an attack on our people.

We had all rushed down the stairs at the sound of Damari yelling out ‘run’ to Archie. We burst through the stairwell door onto the main floor, and it was chaos. People were running and screaming, and the security guys were rushing in the front entrance.

Through the glass, I could see the mayhem of what was left behind. People had abandoned the street and the coffee and snacks that Damari had gone to retrieve were spread about. The man himself was being held up by Jim, one of the security guys, and he looked two seconds away from passing out.

When Ronan bellowed his name, he took off for the other man. I couldn't take my eyes off the scene outside.

My husband, my other half, had just been standing there. He was within arm's reach, and they took him from me.

Rage unlike anything I've ever experienced tore through me. If my getting injured had been the worst moment of my life, this eclipsed it a million times over.

Archie wasn't built for this world. He was not used to interrogation and torture. He hadn't been trained in it. And now these people had taken him from me.

I feared for what he would be going through, for the panic he would feel and the fear driving him. Part of me hoped that he would fight back. I knew he could be a terror when he wanted to be. He would give them hell.

More than that, I wanted him to be safe. I needed to know that no matter what, he wasn't going to do anything that would get him killed.

Because we were going to rescue him.

We would get him back.

But it would take time.

Memphis said this Mordecai person was a ghost. And ghosts didn't leave trails. Still, I knew that we would find Archie. We had to. Life wasn’t worth living without him around.

If I had to demand they help me, just like I helped them find their men, I would. Hell, if I had to remind them that I no longer had a voice, and I had taken a bullet for one of them, I would. There was no tool, no tactic, that I would not put on the table to get Archie back to me.

And once I had him back, I was never going to let him go again.

Tank let out a shrill whistle. “Team, upstairs now. Jim, secure the main floor. No one in or out. I want witness statements and everything.”

Jim nodded. “The police will be here soon.”

Tank gave a feral sort of grin. “I fully expect them to be. Maybe they'll actually be worth a fucking ounce of service.”

It wasn't strange to hear Tank’s disdain for law enforcement, especially at the local level. He had had a few bad experiences through the years, mostly because we didn't really believe in red tape. It was a hindrance to the kind of work we did.

Oftentimes, that same red tape meant to protect people was the thing that let them down and sent them our way in need of service. The stalker who wouldn't give up, yet the client couldn't get a proper restraining order. The woman who was being abused so badly, yet the police could do nothing because it was his word against hers.

Every instance fueled the hatred Tank had and made him better at what he did. It also made him hesitant to trust local authorities.

That didn't mean he didn't know how to play the game, though. He would say what we needed to be said and toe the line if it meant keeping them off our backs so we could find Archie. So we could finish what we started with the Gilded Ones.

We made our way back upstairs, this time with the elevator. Once we were in the war room, Ronan held Damari tight to his chest. The other man was crying, his voice a whisper as he apologized over and over and over again.

I wrote down "It's not your fault," and slid the paper over. Ronan read it, then tried to show it to his boyfriend. Damari wiped his eyes enough to look at it, then bit his lip as he turned to me.

“I appreciate you saying so, but it still feels like I did something wrong. Like I'm the reason this happened. Had we just come straight inside or had we taken the time to go through the doors instead of stopping outside to talk, this would be different. I was just being lazy about not wanting to go all the way up to the floor and then back down. Now Archie's not here.”

He paused to blow his nose.

“He’s with those people. Do we even know who took him?”

Memphis gave a brisk nod as he typed away on his computer. “We know who. We just don't know where. I'm lacking the proper information I need on this person given how well hidden they've been.”

Damari frowned. “That doesn't bode well for us. How do we find someone that's that well-hidden?”

All eyes turned to Tank. He sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. “Everyone looks at me like I'm a fucking magician, and I can just pull a rabbit out of my ass.”

Cohen choked. “I mean, I don't know about a rabbit, but —”

Godric slipped his hand over his boyfriend's mouth. “That's enough out of you. We need to be serious.”

Cohen frowned and turned to look at me. His expression morphed into determination. I appreciated Godric getting his boyfriend under control. I would hate to lash out at him simply because I was worried.

Tank took the hint as well. “What I can do is reach out to an associate of mine. If they happen to know about this Mordecai individual, then they can give us a clue of where to go next.”

Damari raised up out of Ronan's lap. “If we thought this person could find Mordecai, why didn't we use them before? Why were you waiting?”

Tank's hands went to his hips. “Because I deal in favors, Damari, and sometimes it gets really fucking complicated to figure out who has what favor and how I'm going to pay off that debt. The favor I called in to get rid of Ajax is one that's been on my books for about ten years. The favor I'd have to call in for Mordecai is one that I don't really want to have. He and I have traded back and forth over the years, and for some reason, I always come out a little worse for wear when I do work for him.”

The way his fingers tightened on his waist told me everything. This person was powerful enough to help us, but it would come at a cost to our boss and friend.

Before any of us could say or indicate he should hold off, Tank waved his hands as if clearing something away in front of his face. “It doesn't matter what I have to promise or do, I'll do it. Archie is one of ours. They will not take him from us without getting their dues. You all need to be ready to go at a moment's notice because if this works out the way I think it will, it's going to be a real quick turnaround.”

Memphis watched Tank leave the room as the rest of the group huddled together to chat. “How the fuck does he think he's going to find this guy when I couldn’t?”

Cohen blurted out, “Because Tank has a magic dick that does what yours could never.”

Godric let his face fall into his hands as he groaned. In that moment, I really missed Orion because he would have had something to say to combat against Cohen's words. Ronan was too busy checking over Damari to intervene, and Godric was clearly fed up with the man beside him.

And my voice was gone. There was nothing I could say, no quick-witted thing I could do to ease the mood.

Because the truth was, whether it was Tank's dick or some other reason, I didn't care. So long as we got my husband back and the men who took him paid for their crimes, Tank could fucking shit fairy dust all over the office. None of it mattered.

I only wanted Archie. Once I had him back in my arms, I would burn this fucking city to the ground to avenge him.